Ever since the first week of June, we seem to have had a little bit of a problem with finding the winner’s circle. Take nothing away from the horses, the staff, and the general effort, we have been horrendously unlucky on a number of occasions—including in the photo finish booth for the last four months. It’s at the stage now where, when Complex Agenda managed to dead heat on October 24, I walked out to the paddock and said to Maggie, “I’m assuming we lost this one as well,” and she just laughed. Luckily, to stop me from jumping off the roof of the grandstand of Aqueduct, Complex Agenda didn’t lose his photograph, but he didn’t win it either. I haven’t been involved in a dead heat for a very long time, but I will take any victory at the moment if at all possible.
In the month leading up to this, I’d watched Wicked Improbable get mugged on the line. Golden Symphony get beaten four strides before the line. For the Ladies got beat on the line. Morning Prayer got beat on the line. Reteko got beat two strides from the line. It’s been pretty tough to take, to be honest. Even Pookie, when she was third on September 26, got beat in a three-way photo and was beaten by no more than four or five inches.
As anyone who reads this blog is probably very aware, I’m an incredibly competitive human, and this run of painful losses has probably taken a toll on the color of my hair and what was left of it. I think the remainder is falling out. Really, it’s not as if the horses have been in the wrong races or we have an illness in the barn, or people aren’t doing their jobs. It’s simply what they call racing luck, and we’ve been a bit on the unlucky side in the last few months.
It was great to see Enlighten win first off the claim for Rainbow’s End Racing on the opening day of Aqueduct on September 12th. As I’ve touched on, we’ve had some other horses run extremely well especially Wicked Improbable, who is incredibly unlucky. Copper Caduceus ran a beautiful second first time out on October 3. Golden Symphony was a very brave second in his first race for us off the claim.
I want to give a special mention to For the Ladies, who has been an incredibly difficult filly to keep—mentally. This is a great example of a horse with a very decent level of ability coming out of a two-year-old sale and really struggling mentally to come to terms with the idea of doing everything slower and for further. We struggled to train her during the summer months, but Leah Gyarmati—who is a wonderful horsewoman and trainer in her own right—has been getting on this filly now for three months and has built up a really good rapport with her. She’s taught her to slow down on the track in the mornings and to just be more relaxed about her training on a day-to-day basis. It was particularly heart-wrenching to watch this filly break from the gate, take pressure the whole way around the racetrack, put away those horses who had battled with her early, and open up in the lane looking like she was going to win. I probably won’t forgive Conor Foley for patting me on the back at the 1-16th pole and saying, “Well done mate. You’ve got this,” because she got absolutely nailed. Literally, in the last jump of the race to lose her debut by half a head… it was a fairly tough pill to swallow.
Moving on. Morning Prayer took a huge step up for Steven Rocco second time out on the turf, getting beaten in a desperate battle to the line. After having fought off one challenger, got nailed right at the end of the race by a filly she probably didn’t even see coming.
And Wicked Improbable? You probably won’t see a more unlucky second if you try. Ricardo Santana gave him an absolute dream ride, hitting the front of the 16th pole, battling away a Chad Brown odds-on favorite only to be done by a horse coming down the middle of the track who we never saw and beat him in the last jump as well. So, all in all, it’s been a pretty rough few weeks for us.
As a barn, claiming is a substantial part of our business, and we run a very active claiming operation, so it’s always fun when new people get involved in that side of it. Shout out to Steven Rocco, who made his first claim in Saratoga with Complex Agenda on the turf. I’m looking forward to seeing this horse run on the dirt. Steven took a huge amount of enjoyment claiming him, but the fact that his first ever claim won his first race—for a man who has invested an enormous amount in yearlings and two-year-olds at the training sales—it was immensely gratifying to see him win.
Away from the racetrack, we’ve finished up our yearling purchases for 2025 with two additional sales to the Keeneland sale. Conor Foley, Nick Esler and I went with Team West Paces to Tattersalls and had the most wonderful trip, examining and picking from an absolute elite group of yearlings on offer in Europe. And we felt we were very lucky to come away with a beautiful, very racy, very precocious Kodiac filly and an extremely powerful good-moving son of Lope De Vega.
These two, much like last year’s purchases, have gone to Ed Walker in Lambourne, and we’re looking forward to seeing last year’s purchase, Euston Hall, make his debut possibly next week at Newcastle or Kempton. After returning from Tattersalls, Conor and Nick went to the Fasig-Tipton October sale where we were able to pick up one last New York-bred colt for Rainbow’s End Racing.
The yearling market has been incredibly buoyant this year. It’s been a very strong market from start to finish, and as such, it’s been hard work and great fun recruiting the horses for next year. I’m really looking forward to the last couple of months of 2025, mainly so that I can put this year in the rear-view mirror.
It’s been an up-and-down year in terms of results for us but I do think that looking at our stock for next year, if they all managed to come back healthy and sound and happy and having taken the necessary forward steps that I think they can, we have an extremely good group of two- turning three-year-olds and older horses with the padding of a really nice group of juveniles to follow them into the barn. So, I’m hoping we can take a step forward in terms of the quality of races that we’re capable of winning, and as such, building up the chance to compete in big races on Saturday afternoons.
Speaking of big races, it’s Breeders’ Cup weekend. This is my favorite weekend of racing out of the whole year. I always say that the Breeders’ Cup was dubbed the World Championships too early because the Europeans didn’t bring their best horses to it. Now, it’s got to the stage where not only do the Europeans bring their very best, but you see the very best from Japan as well.
Without a doubt, it’s become the most important two days of racing in North America, eclipsing the Kentucky Derby and Travers in Saratoga. The Breeders’ Cup is genuinely two days of the best racing anywhere on the planet, and I can’t wait to watch tonight and tomorrow and see how everything stacks up. Friday afternoon is the juveniles, and Saturday is the championship races.
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